Frozen: True Love
by sonicking2004
Summary: This story has no connection to my prev. Frozen FanFics. In this AU one-shot, we explore what would have happened if something had prompted Elsa to learn of Anna's condition before Hans had told her his version of what happened. What would Elsa be willing to do to save her sister, and will it be enough? Warning: may shock younger fans. Reader's discretion is advised.


**True Love**

As Elsa sat in the dungeons, she watched as the frost covering her gauntlets spread down the chains attached to them to cover the walls of her cell! Prince Hans had said that he would do what he can to convince the people of Arendelle to let her go, as distance was the only thing she could think of that might free her country of the curse of winter she had unwittingly unleashed upon it, but clearly she couldn't wait any longer! She had to get out of here now, otherwise the storm inside of her would kill everyone here!

As she struggled with the chains, she heard the guards outside saying, "Hurry up!" "She's dangerous! Move quickly!" "Careful!"

Had they come to release her after all? No, from what they were saying, it sounded like they were actually coming to kill her, just as Prince Hans had said they'd wanted to do before he'd convinced them to bring her back here alive instead! As much as she wanted to free Arendelle from this winter, she wasn't ready to die to make it happen, nor was she convinced that it would stop this storm! She would try it her way first and get as far away from Arendelle as she could!

However, no matter how hard she pulled on the icy chains they would not budge, and the only thing that kept the guards from coming in to complete their grim task was that the ice had sealed the door to her cell! As she stopped pulling to catch her breath, Elsa saw as her worst fears came to pass as the ice forced itself between the stones of her cell and started to make them crumble! However, by a lucky happenstance, the ice in her gauntlets had also pushed them beyond their limits and broken their locks, freeing her!

Figuring that they would be rather weak by now, Elsa threw herself against the windows of her cell and, while she'd expected them to give way easily, she had not expected the section of the wall to crumble around it as well behind her, leaving a gaping hole! Oh well, she figured that once she was gone from here, and her people did not have to work in a blizzard, then they would be able to repair it easily enough.

After taking a few running steps away, Elsa took one last look at the castle as she said a mental goodbye to Anna and prayed that she would not try and track her down again. That was when she noticed that the curtains to the library were drawn shut. Such a small thing, she should have been able to dismiss it and move on with her plan to leave Arendelle forever, but for some reason she could not tear her eyes away. She recalled the times that she'd spent with her sister there, either reading her a story or studying on their favorite subjects (hers was Geometry); and she recalled the times after the accident, when she'd sneak out of her room when she was certain everyone was asleep and she could read on her own and remember the happy times she'd spent there before. One constant she'd remembered from each of those times was that those curtains were never, ever shut, as the light coming through them was the best for reading! Figuring that she would not be able to move on until she'd satisfied her curiosity about this, Elsa created a huge snowdrift under her to allow her to get up to the roof so she may begin to climb up there, not noticing as Hans climbed through the hole she'd left in the wall. Hans, likewise not seeing any signs of Elsa, made his way deeper into the blizzard.

When Elsa had climbed up to the library's window, an act that was surprisingly easy due to her turning the snow gathered on the roof into icy steps, Elsa peered through the small gap remaining and was shocked by what she saw! Anna was in there, lying motionless on the floor, whether asleep or dead she wasn't sure! What she could see, though, was that the small platinum streak in her hair had grown and she was left with little remaining of her natural strawberry-blond coloring! In other words, if she was not already dead, then she would be soon!

"Anna!" Elsa cried out in panic just as a huge blast of arctic wind responded to her emotions to force the window open! Climbing through, Elsa latched the windows shut again and hurried over to Anna and picked her up gingerly. To Elsa's great relief, Anna's eyes fluttered open as she asked in confusion, "Elsa? Why are you…"

"Shhh, shhh, shhh, it's okay! Don't try to talk, just save your strength!" Elsa comforted her sister, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that this had happened to you, but I'm here now and I'm going to make everything all right again!" Elsa then rushed over to the doors to open them and call for help, but was shocked to find them locked! Now the curtains being shut was odd enough, but for someone to lock the library's doors with Anna still inside! With so many questions brewing inside her, the only thing that managed to come to Elsa's lips was, "What…?"

"It was…Prince Hans," Anna said as she struggled to get back to the couch, "I'm sorry….Elsa. I should have….listened to you. You were right. It wasn't…true love."

"Prince Hans!?" Elsa asked in shock. She could not believe it! She knew that her sister hadn't known Hans long enough to know whether or not to marry the guy, but Elsa had figured that he was a decent enough person when he'd saved her from killing the Duke's guards, from being killed by them in turn! She even fell into the same trap of trusting him that her sister had, that he was actually going to try and convince the others to let her go!

"He wants….to kill you," Anna said as she lifted herself back into the couch and wrapped herself in the blanket there, "Become….a hero."

_And probably sent the guards to do the job!_ Elsa thought bitterly,_ Probably declared me a traitor for what's happening to Anna, so he didn't have to get his hands dirty!_ Aloud, she said, "Don't worry about that now! We'll deal with him as soon as we get you better!" Then she fired a blast of energy at the floor, causing an icicle to spring up from it and smash the doors open, then she stuck her head through them and bellowed, "Kai! Gerda! In here! Quickly!"

As she went over to help her sister up, the servants Elsa had called for came rushing in, with Kai saying as he entered, "My queen? I thought you were…" he trailed off as soon as he saw her with Anna's arm draped around her shoulders, the latter looking even worse than she was last he saw her, "Milady! What's happening to you!?"

"I'm pretty sure my power is killing her, and we're running out of time to save her!" Elsa explained, "Kai, I need you to go down to the stables and ready my fastest horse! Don't tell anyone else what you're doing or why, as there are traitors in the palace and we don't know who to trust! Gerda, please help me get her downstairs!"

"Where…are we going?" Anna asked her.

"To the trolls of the Valley of Living Stones," Elsa said as she struggled under her sister's weight, "They'll be able to save you by removing my magic from you, like they did before!"

"They….can't help," Anna told her sister.

"What!?" Elsa said in shock, stopping to look at her as Kai and Gerda did the same, "Anna, you don't know what you're saying! I know you don't remember, but my magic had hurt you before and the trolls saved you!"

"I figured….that out already," Anna admitted, "Kristoff already….took me there. Grandpabby cannot….remove ice….from my heart."

"What!? No!" Elsa wailed in despair. Anna was the only family Elsa had left, and the trolls were last hope! If they could not save her…!

"Grandpabby said….only an act of….true love can thaw….a frozen heart," Anna continued, "I thought, If Hans kissed me, that would save me. But…"

But Elsa had stopped listening after Anna had repeated what the troll told her, her mind racing as she considered the possible options available to her. With as quickly as Anna was fading, there was no time to find someone else who could actually love her, whose kiss would save her life. Elsa knew beyond a doubt that she loved her sister, but she doubted that a kiss from her would do the trick.

Then the Idea struck her, as quickly as a bolt of lightning and just as terrible, just as devastating! Simply thinking about doing what she was contemplating made Elsa tremble with fear, but the idea of her sister dying because of her was simply unthinkable, and she would not survive that anyway!

"Gerda, please take Anna for me," Elsa asked with a calm she did not feel, removing Anna's arm from her shoulders, "Kai, come back inside. I need you to take some notes for me."

As Kai complied with her request, Olaf the snowman came bounding inside, saying with jubilation, "Anna! I found Hans wandering outside for you! He's coming back this way!"

"What!?" Elsa said as she googled at the innocent statement her magical creation had made, then she hurriedly ordered Kai, "Quick! Shut the door!"

Kai did as she asked, then he said with uncertainty as he looked at the doors, "My Queen…?"

Elsa saw the problem immediately: her act of forcing the doors open had damaged the handles, and so would not keep Hans or anyone else from just opening them again. "Stand back!" Elsa ordered. Then when Kai did so, Elsa unleashed a blast of power that filled the space between them and sealed the doors shut. Then she proceeded to create a series of crossbars to further bar entry. She had just managed to finish the last one when the sounds of ponding began to be heard on the other side.

"Your Majesty, I don't think that will hold them for long!" Gerda said with concern.

"Let's just hope that it holds them long enough!" Elsa responded.

"What did you do that for?" Olaf asked in confusion, "Now Hans can't get in to kiss Anna!"

"That's okay, Olaf," Elsa said as she smiled sweetly at her naïve friend, "Hans doesn't love her, but I do. I know just how to save her." As Elsa turns the other way and begins work on her latest frozen creation, Elsa announces, "Kai, write this down! For their separate and terrible act of treason, I proclaim that Prince Hans of the Southern Isles and the Duke of Weselton are forevermore banished from Arendelle and to be deported to their respective countries as soon as passage can be arranged to do so! Furthermore, Arendelle is to no longer to do business of any sort with Weselton. Finally, when my sister comes of age, the crown is to be passed on down to her! These are to to be my final commandments as Queen, and I order them to be carried out forthwith!"

"Of, course!" Kai agreed, but then asked in confusion, "But did you just say…'final'?"

Elsa did not answer, but instead put the finishing touches on her creation. When she was done, Elsa heard gasps from everyone in the room and she could not blame them. Her latest creation, which towered over that end of the room, was as beautiful to behold as it was terrible, and there was no denying its purpose. The shocked faces of the others (especially Anna's, whose hair was now completely white and whose face was now becoming frosted as well) seemed to shimmer as the light from the window refracted off of Elsa's guillotine.

"Your Majesty," Gerda asked in a small voice, "What are you doing!?"

As Elsa rounded to the device's other side, she lowered her head into the cradle and answered her simply, "What has to be done." Then she lowered the upper brace to hold her head in place.

"Elsa! No!" Anna cried as she struggled in Gerda's arms, prompting Elsa to order her, "Hold her back!"

As Kai came forward to help Gerda, the same shocked disbelief in his eyes, Anna kept struggling as she sobbed and asked, "Why, Elsa!? Why are you doing this!?"

"It's what you said," Elsa answered in a tone that just bare escaped being a sob as well, " 'An act of true love to thaw a frozen heart.' I'm doing this to save you, and possibly all of Arendelle as well."

"We'll find another way!" Anna begged her, "Just please, please don't do this!"

"I'm watching you die before my eyes! I'm sorry we didn't get more time together, but there's no time left to try anything else!" Then Elsa looked towards Kia and asked, "You'll see that my commandments are carried out?"

In a choked tone, Kai said as he nodded, "On my honor, my Queen!"

"Elsa! Please!" Anna begged her.

"I'm sorry, Anna," Elsa said with a smile, tears streaming down her face, "Just know that I never stopped loving you, that I had only been trying to protect you all those years, and that someday you'll find someone who'll make you happy the way Hans never could."

"No! Don't!" Anna cried.

"I love you, Anna," Elsa sobbed, "Goodbye!"

Then she reached up and pulled the release cord.

What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion for Elsa, yet she seemed as frozen as her guillotine to do anything about it! As the transparent blade began to slide down with a ringing like crystal, she saw Anna break away from Kai and Gerda, displaying a strength that she simply could not believe Anna possessed! Before the two servants could recover enough to do anything about it, Anna threw herself on top of Elsa from the guillotine's other side, physically transforming as she did so! Her change into an ice statue was complete just as the blade touched Anna's neck, a shockwave of force shattering the blade and damaging the guillotine's framework.

"Anna!" Elsa cried as she broke free of her restraints, turning what was left of the guillotine into an unrecognizable pile of ice shards, "Why!? Why did you….why wouldn't you…?" But Elsa found herself unable to finish her entreaty as she clung to Anna's frozen form, sobs wracking her body.

As she hung there, wishing fervently that the ice would take her too, Elsa heard the tinkling sounds of her barricades being broken as Hans and her guards finally forced their way in. Still frozen in her grief, Elsa did not even open her eyes and look up, though she could imagine well enough that Hans took a minute to take in the scene before he composed himself and said, in a tone that sounded grief-stricken as he said, "You can pretend all you wish, your Highness, but all of your crocodile tears won't change the fact that you murdered my beloved! Guards, take her away!"

"No!" Kai countered, "It is _you_ who should stop pretending! Gerda and I were here, Prince Hans! We know everything!"

"That's right!" Gerda said in a tone that sounded both angry and filled with grief at the same time, "Princess Anna was still alive when Queen Elsa called us in here! The Princess told us herself how you wouldn't give her the kiss that might have saved her, that instead you locked her in here to die and went to kill the Queen so that you could be King!"

"What!? You bastard!" said a male voice that Elsa could not place at first, then she recalled that it belonged to the male companion who'd accompanied Anna to Elsa's ice palace. After the sound of someone striking someone else, she heard the young man cry out again, "I'll kill you!"

"There'll be no need for that, young man, as Queen Elsa had already determined his punishment," Kai said over the sounds of the young man's struggles. As he settled down, Kai continued, "As she prepared to use a guillotine she'd created to give her own life to save the Princess, an act that was foiled by the Princess's own sacrifice, the Queen had decreed that both the Prince and the Duke would be banished back to their own countries, so that is what will be done. Unless there has been a change, your Highness?" When she couldn't bring herself to stop crying long enough to answer, Kai asked again in a gentler tone, "Uh, my Quee…?"

Elsa heard Kai trail off as gasps filled the room, but she was too wrapped up in her grief to care. It wasn't until she felt Anna's back and neck grow warm and supple again that she opened her eyes again, just in time to see life and color return to Anna's! Elsa could not believe it, was certain that she must be dreaming! Anna was alive! Elsa's own heart was so warm and full that she thought it might burst! Elsa would not care if it had, for moment the only thing that Elsa wanted to do was to keep hugging her sister, afraid that if she let go that it would all prove to be a cruel dream and she'd wake up to the reality that her beloved sister was gone.

When she'd managed to convince herself it was real, other questions began to fill her mind, such as how and when. What she managed to ask, however, was, "_You_ sacrificed _yourself_ for _me!?_"

"Of course, you big idiot!" Anny replied with a watery smile, "I love you!"

Elsa then heard from over by the others Olaf gasp and say, " 'An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart'!"

_Anna's 'act of true love', her sacrificing her life to save mine, had saved her life as well?_ Elsa thought to herself. Then, with her chest feeling warmer than it had in the longest time, Elsa began to notice other things as well. Things like how the streak of platinum that been in Anna's hair for years was now gone completely! Or how the ice that had been seeping in through the roof was now receding. Or even how she couldn't hear the wind howling outside anymore! As she looked out the window, Elsa saw how the snow was not falling anymore, but rather it was suspended in mid-air. As she put this together the warm sensation she was feeling, Elsa thought to herself,_ Is it really that simple? Was love the answer all along?_

For the first time in years, Elsa decided to stop suppressing her feelings and instead allowed the glow inside her to grow, to encompass all those who her parents had entrusted with her protection. Immediately she saw a reaction as the snow gathered on the roof began to break apart and float back into the sky, joining the hanging snowflakes which also began to rise.

Anna, seeing the strange look she'd never known to be on Elsa's face, said in confusion and concern, "Elsa?"

"Of course!" Elsa exclaimed to herself as she opened the window wide, "Love!"

Then Elsa heard a gasp of surprise and delight from Anna, emotions she was feeling herself, Elsa raised her hands and actively took control over the process, letting love be the force behind her power rather than fear. In response, virtually every single snowflake in Arendelle began drifting up to join their brothers even as the ice in the fjord broke up and thawed! Before long, Arendelle was back looking as its own summery self, with only the upper most peak of the North Mountain remaining untouched! Then, as the last of the snow reached the point in the sky where the others had formed a giant snowflake, Elsa made one last flourish and all the snow dissipated back into the water vapor from which it formed.

Elsa then looked over as Anna joined her by the window and placed her hand on Elsa's shoulder, saying with pride and more than a bit of smugness, "I knew you could do it!"

Then she heard Olaf, his voice sounding even more bubbly than usual, "Hands down, this is the best day of my life! And, quite possibly, the last!"

Looking over, she saw that Olaf was smiling even as the summer heat was quickly melting him into a pile of slush. Smiling back at her happy-go-lucky friend, Elsa said, "Oh Olaf! Hang on there, little guy!" Then Elsa dug into her newfound control and with a gesture caused Olaf to be restored back to new, with one new addition: a tiny snowcloud hanging over his head! Olaf looked at this and gasped and giggled with delight as he exclaimed, "My own personal flurry!"

Then she saw Elsa's face again, and it seemed that no further words were needed as they were hugging once again, though she was certain she'd seen out of the corner of her eye Anna giving the young man from earlier a glance and a smile. Making note of that, Elsa figured that Anna wouldn't have to wait that long to find her true love and determined to ask her all about him later.

Intruding somewhat on the happy moment, one of the guards cleared his throat and gestured towards Hans, whose hands were being manacled behind his back by another guard, as he asked, "My queen? What should we…?"

"I believe I've already given Kai my orders on the matter," Elsa answered simply, refusing to budge from her embrace, "Just cross the last item off the list." Elsa finished with a shooing motion from her hand.

"Of course, my Queen," Kai acknowledged as he led Hans and the guards out of the room.

Elsa sigh as the doors were closed again, then glanced in the other direction, back where her guillotine was set up. On the floor, she saw the only piece that remained: the handle for the release cord. In a way, she had died when she pulled that handle, or rather, the old Elsa died; the one who lived in fear, isolated herself from everyone, and simply let life pass her by. Elsa snapped her fingers and that last piece also evaporated. Elsa decided that this would be the start of her second life, and that she would now live every moment to its fullest! She would never let fear control her ever again!


End file.
